In the article the author outlines the basics of a legal methodology (called textempiricism and analytical legal doctrine), which is consistently language-oriented and empirical. It rests on a relatively simple, seemingly obvious assertion: in order to qualify as scientific proposition, legal propositions need to correlate to authoritative legal texts as empirical linguistic facts. This stance defines the necessary starting point for and primary direction of legal research as well as the terms of legal theorizing, or the methodological foundations of the critique of general legal statements.